The basic design of both manual and automatic food slicers has proven to be quite effective and durable throughout the years. Although various important improvements have been made to such slicers, the overall design has not changed very much particularly with regard to the overall cleanliness, ergonomics, or ease of operation.
Today, food slicers are utilized to slice a number of food products such as meats, cheeses and the like in a variety of environments such as delicatessens, supermarkets, and restaurants to name a few. Such food slicers need to be quite durable since they tend to be used for many hours during a day by many different individuals while providing the desired performance, safety and cleanliness.
Additionally, food slicers need to be designed to allow adaptability since they need to handle a variety of products of different shapes, sizes, and textures while readily providing slices of different thicknesses of the product being sliced. The speed at which a particular product is moved across the cutting blade can also vary on automatic food slicers to improve productivity.
To ensure a sharp blade for accurate slicing; food slicers typically include some type of sharpening mechanism. Such mechanisms usually are either mounted to the food slicer during use and only removed for cleaning or are only mounted to the slicer for sharpening and stored elsewhere when not sharpening the blade.
With the first type of mechanism, contamination from food scraps and juices can be a concern for the sharpener itself as well as any mounting mechanisms or additional guarding used to provide for enhanced safety. With the second type of mechanism, care must be exercised since the sharpener needs to be accurately mounted by an operator close to the blade with the gage plate in its fully open position.